Interactive Brainstorming - Geopolitical Patterns, Tensions & Climates

[Sam_Observer22]

Greetings!
With consent from an administrator, I plan to ask a few sharpening thoughts about geopolitical interactions in any historical or alternate history background. I also plan to formulate a mock model after the current Navalism rules.

I understand that some are to think that this is just a game or a sport. From what I observed, this form of recreation has a potential to spread awareness about international disputes, conflicts, and societal unrest. I cannot say, but maybe, one day, in the future, humanity will find a way to settle disagreements peacefully through a better approach.

I am not saying, in one way or another, that the simulation can already predict the collective behavior of a state, or government. What I am trying to share is that the model can be a basis or starting point for an effective computing tool that can (hopefully) save lives.

Again, I thank those who kindly respond to this topic.

Sincerely,
Sam

[The Rock Doctor]

Hi!

I'm not sure how helpful I'll be, but fire away.

[Sam_Observer22]

I apologize for the long wait.

Based on prior experiences, which variable (i.e. IPC production) affected the progression of nations the most?

I am also interested on primary factors that quicken or stimulate technological advancement. (i.e. wartime era)

[The Rock Doctor]

Can I ask you to define "IPC" and be cautious with acronyms? 

War can certainly be transformational, but it's on that spectrum of..."national cause", I guess I'd call it.  The government decides something is the key thing that must be done, and directs titanic amounts of financial and human capital towards achieving that thing.  It could be defeating Nazis, it could be addressing climate change, it could be putting people on the moon.  Consider the Apollo program, which - I was surprised to learn last week - is the basis for safe food handling procedures in North America and perhaps beyond.

Conversely, it seems that huge prestige projects can also choke out advancement, given my understanding of Spanish stagnation during its colonial era.

[Sam_Observer22]

Good day!

I am pleased to see your response.

ICP (Industrial Complex Points)
I forgot to consider that any analogous reference to the sim is restricted in this forum.

To clarify, I was pertaining to the examples Growth per Capita, and other forms of income.

I forgot to mention that the formulation of the model is inspired by the simulation. All these aside, the mock model aims to project educational insights and facts.

For the next question, if you were to quantify or to measure data regarding nations and their political patterns such as motives, what method are you to use? Is it possible to start from a basic megagame to a hands-on computer?
When I referred to megagame, different game points are utilized to score or to collect experimental results.

[snip]

Welcome!

I think in the context of these questions its important to point something out regarding Navalism's economic system and the philosophy that went into this iteration from a "why are we here" standpoint. Reason I'm starting here is I think some of the questions you are asking will give wildly different answers in the context of our systems and goals in comparison to a system more true to the real world.

Fundamentally, there have been two main goals to Navalism over the years. While these have varied in interpretation, its consistently been the underpinnings of the sim. First, the creation of a sim where the program Springsharp can be utilized for the creation of national naval forces in an environment that takes into account the various limitations and reasons for creating said naval forces. The intent here is to provide a collection of shared frameworks (ex. economic, political, geographic) which provide a foundation for all these designs to "exist". Second, to utilize this environment to provide story-driven or third-party gamed interaction between these forces and their players. Most of the interaction is player driven, with how much individual players want to dive into more "serious" roleplay compared to focus on a more "armchair" leadership experience.

In the context of the current iteration, some ideas where implemented which may make the sort of analysis you are hinting at very difficult. First, our geographic considerations. We use a world map originally made for the Paradox grand-strategy title Victoria II (tho IIRC roughly the same map is used for most of the Paradox titles utilizing the Clausewitz engine) because it already came sub-divided into many provinces which make knowing exactly where something actually is quite simple in comparison to a non-divided map. This provides benefits when dealing with land-based military affairs. Second, the non-naval military sections of the system were greatly simplified and abstracted to allow the focus of the complex parts of the rules to be in the naval forces, which are the primary driver of the sim. Third, a large part of our economic system is set up to encourage the development of overseas colonies to provide a reason for the naval forces to exist.

I'm happy to try and answer questions, but its possible with the constraints of our ruleset and the various ways in which players participate may make modeling like you are mentioning difficult.

[The Rock Doctor]

Hard to say.

In-character, the Vilnius Union is a parliamentary monarchy broadly akin to Great Britain of the early 20th century.  It has a monarch, a prime minister, and at least one legislative house, plus local domestic governors, powerful and fairly autonomous overseas governors, key industries, a voting populace, a non-voting populace, and overseas stakeholders, all interacting to influence what the Vilnius Union sets as policy or law.

Out-of-character and in the practical sense, the Vilnius Union is an autocracy run by me alone, and every decision it makes boils down to, "What would please The Rock Doctor?".

So I guess I'd answer your question with a question in turn:  To what degree can the model capture different cultural/political/economic factions within a nation state and their relative influence and power, and to what degree is all of this offset by a single controlling player's whims?

Games like Victoria or Hearts of Iron (none of which I've actually played, to be clear) may offer some insights here.

[Sam_Observer22]

I appreciate the feedback.
From your answer about springsharp being the core reason for the rule system, I assess that the simulation can contribute in my future projects about how warfare interacts with different economies.
Moreover, I find the counterquestion interesting. In the case of the project, it assumes that player himself/herself represents the decision of the state. (i.e. in the case of a parliament or executive bodies with several heads, the research assumes that the choices are already decided.)

What do you think? Should I allot a number of players for a parliament system?

[The Rock Doctor]

Or have the sim set up to "game out" the behaviour of a parliament, economy, etc much like (I assume) a modern computer game's AI would function.

Depends on whether you're trying to create a one-person game or a multi-player game.